St Anne's Catholic Primary School, Stepgates Community School and Pyrcroft Grange Primary School allowed children to be collected from 1.30pm after receiving information from the agency about the rising water levels on the Thames.

Ann Coleman, headteacher at St Anne's school in Free Prae Road, said: "We had an alert from the Environment Agency saying they would be opening gates at Windsor Lock so flooding was likely in Chertsey.

"They said it would be similar to the floods in 2003. In 2003 we were surrounded by water. We decided to give parents the option of picking up the children earlier."

She said they planned to open on Thursday but would reassess the situation in the morning.

Nicola Colley, assistant headteacher at Pyrcroft Grange, added that the majority of their children were also picked up early.

'Stuck in the middle'

Mark Molinaro, landlord at The Kingfisher in Chertsey Bridge Road, has been watching the water rise over the past couple of days with partner Lucy Delaney.

Miss Delaney, 27, said: "We knew the river was high and yesterday at about 4pm it started coming into the car park. Within a couple of hours it was completely flooded.

"We have been told we have 24 hours until the water reaches us if it continues rising."

Miss Delaney said an overflow lake behind the houses in Chertsey Bridge Road reached capacity and started spilling over.

Water has also flooded from the Thames channel across Dumsey Meadow and out onto Chertsey Bridge Road, leaving the houses marooned in the middle. Most homes there have been evacuated.

"People started leaving yesterday. There's some people still here and have sandbags ready in case," Miss Delaney said.

"The water has nowhere to go," she added. "We are stuck in the middle of it.

"People have got a digger out and are trying to dig a channel down the side of the road for the water to go into."

Water has also spilled out over Thameside, which runs from Chertsey to Laleham, reaching caravans and mobile homes based at Laleham Camping Club.

Miss Delaney said: "They closed the bridge this morning. The road was closed up to the pub car park.

"We were open until about 11pm but the drains filled up so we can't put anything down them at the moment, so we had to close.

"We are taking it in our stride, I'm more sad for the locals. Mark really didn't want to have to close the pub and we would have stayed open if it wasn't for the drains.

"But it is bringing everyone together and everyone is helping one another."

Towpath

In Staines, the Thames towpath and Lammas Recreation Ground were both flooded.

Writing on Get Surrey's Facebook page, Kimberley Carr said there was "water lapping by the road under the railway bridge near Thames Lodge".

Many residents of Spelthorne are unable to park near their homes as a result of the flooding, and the borough council has lifted parking restrictions at a number of locations until Thursday evening. They are:

Old Bathing Station, Fordbridge Road, Sunbury

Green Street, Sunbury

Laleham Road, Laleham

Abbey Drive, Laleham

Broadway, Laleham

Michael Burley, vicar of Staines, said the rising waters were making their way up to the entrance of St Peter's Church in Laleham Road.

He said: "It's down to the path, I've never seen it so high but I've just arrived here three months ago, but it's surprising.

"The local people tell me that it's got a long way to go before it reaches the heights of 10 years ago. It came as far as the church door then.

"The vicar, Rod Cosh, said he once could canoe from St Peter's to St Mary's Church. So he has seen a few of these [floods].

"It's watch this space here, but if if carries on like this we really will be worried.

"It has yet to burst its banks here, it is coming up through the lawn, we've got a pond in the lawn before it breaks out the bank.

"The water table is so high and rising. We are just praying it is not going to get any higher."

The Surrey Advertiser, News & Mail and Staines Informer are part of Trinity Mirror Southern, offering you unique access to our audience across the region online and in print.

We reach an average of 599,113* unique users a month with dedicated coverage of Guildford, Woking, Esher, Staines and the whole of Surrey

80% of our visitors**, who view an average of 2,616,228* page impressions every month, are in the desirable ABC1 socio-economic groups.

To book an advert with the our advertising team, call 01483 508700 or visit the Trinity Mirror Southern website trinitymirrorsouthern.co.uk for more information.trinitymirrorsouthern.co.uk for more information.

We are part of Trinity Mirror Southern, offering you unique access to our audience across the region online and in print..

She has been editorial director of the online and print titles in Surrey and north-east Hampshire since 2007. Marnie previously worked at the BBC as a producer for 5 Live, having moved to national radio from BBC Sussex and Surrey.